Very Big Dursley Family
by Stephen Ratliff
Summary: What if Dudley wasn't an only child. What if a gift of Lily to her sister, along with the wards protecting Harry resulted lots of children in a household full of love instead of resentment. What if the wards were more powerful the more family that lived under them, What if the protection imparted by Lily to her son, also was imparted to those new magical children
1. Birthdays

_**Author's Note:**_ _What if Dudley wasn't an only child. What if a gift of Lily to her sister, along with the wards protecting Harry resulted lots of children in a household full of love instead of resentment. What if the wards were more powerful the more family that lived under them, and protected more of the neighborhood as a result. What if the protection imparted by Lily to her son, also was imparted in part those new magical children ... well, the Dursley Family is a bit different._

* * *

"Wake up. Cousin wake up," Dudley Dursley said, pounding down the stairs that was the ceiling of Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs bedroom. Harry Potter was the only Potter living at Number Four Privet Drive, in the large Dursley Family, but that wasn't why he was sleeping under the stairs. He'd asked to turn it into a very small bedroom as a way to not have to share a bedroom with his then three-year-old cousin Bradley as well as Dudley. Dudley often groused about Harry's successful move. It may have had just enough room for his mattress and a set of shelves behind it, but he didn't have to share a room with any of his seven cousins.

Harry reached back and picked up his glasses from the shelf behind him. Sliding them on he moved to open the door and get out. He had kitchen duty this morning, which was Dudley's birthday. As such, Dudley had the day off from helping. As soon as he stood up, his oldest cousin bumped into him, nearly sending him back into the cupboard. It was part of their regular morning ritual.

Harry took the apron off the hanger next to the door, and put it on over his t-shirt and boxers. Morning at the Dursley's was decidedly casual. Harry only wore a t-shirt to bed because he had to cook in the morning. The rest of the children in the household tended to come to breakfast in their underpants. Harry fired up the gas stove, and began frying up the sausage and eggs that his uncle insisted on. He looked out into the dining room and discovered that despite the fact that it was his birthday, Dudley was putting out the spoons and forks. The pile of plates were already at the end of the counter, waiting for the orders.

"Dud, it's your birthday, its Lily's job," Harry said.

"I saw her coming out of her and Violet's room. Best not to get on her bad side today." Dudley said. "Plus this is easy, and what else would I do while waiting for breakfast? I'm not going up and waking Bradley and Noel. Better to let the two little terrors that I share my room with sleep in and enjoy the bliss."

"Warning, Lily is not in a good mood this morning," Violet said, as the eight-year-old entered the kitchen. "I just want a grapefruit today, Harry. And I'll handle the drinks."

"Coming right up," Harry said. He removed the grapefruit from the fridge, cut it in half, and put both halves in bowls. He handed one bowl to Violet, and left the other on the counter for Aunt Petunia. Back to the stove, and it looked like the first batch of eggs was ready. He slid them to on to a couple plates, and started the next batch, just in time for the sausage to be ready. "Three sausages today, Dudley?"

"Yes," Dudley replied getting up to get his plate. He returned to the seat at the head of the table. On your birthday, you got to sit there. Violet gave him his glass of orange juice.

A fully dressed Uncle Vernon arrived, obviously still a bit asleep. Normally Harry would have had a cup of coffee ready for him, but his doctor had ordered him to cut back, and Aunt Petunia had promptly stopped buying it as an unnecessary expense. Harry handed his uncle the plate he'd just prepared for him.

Vernon nodded to Harry and said, "Happy Birthday, Dudley. How's my eleven-year-old man?"

"Good Dad," Dudley replied, as the two youngest Dursley girls arrived, six-year-old Iris and four-year-old Primrose. Harry poured out their cereal, and added some milk, missing a bit of Dudley's reply. "Do you have to go to work today?"

"I have to put food on the table," Uncle Vernon replied, as nine-year-old Lily entered the kitchen. Her long strawberry blond hair made her stand out among the mostly blond Dursleys. "Lily, I remind you once again, you're old enough that you should be wearing a shirt to breakfast."

"Dudley doesn't have to wear one," Lily replied.

"Dudley's a boy," Vernon said. "You're a girl who is just starting to develop. Go back upstairs and put a shirt on."

She stood there for a moment, staring down her father. Harry hadn't really noticed, but Lily did have a little bit of a mound now under her nipples. Staring contest lost, Lily stomped her foot and pounded back up stairs, as the last two Dursley children entered, seven-year-old Bradley and five-year-old Noel.

"I want three sausages today," Bradley ordered.

"You barely eat two," Harry said. One of his responsibilities when he cooked was to make sure no food was wasted. With ten people in the house, food had to be stretched. "You can ask for seconds when you're done." A plate of sausage and eggs was handed over to Bradley, and another bowl of cereal to Noel. Lily returned with a half-t-shirt on just as he finished serving Noel. The next to last plate of sausages and eggs went to her.

Aunt Petunia came down last, pale faced, and obvious to Harry as having another bout of morning sickness. His aunt had throught that she was done having children, after going six straight years having babies, but last month she'd tested positive again. She wasn't the only pregnant woman on the street, Pier's mother was also pregnant with her eighth as well. There were a lot of children on Privet Drive it seemed every house was busting at the seams with them. Harry handed his aunt her grapefruit, and Violet handed her the tall glass of cranberry juice that no one else in the family drank, and she only did when she was pregnant.

Aunt Petunia added just a bit of ginger to her cranberry juice and took her seat at the table. Harry filled his own plate and took a seat at the counter, opposite Violet. Since it was Dudley's birthday, he expected some announcement about activities. The usually useless presents from Aunt Marge were waiting for Dudley to open too. Harry wondered what idea Aunt Marge would have for Dudley this year. Last month had been Lily's, and for some reason Aunt Marge had thought that Lily would be interested in needlepoint. Lily was a tomboy, and so was Violet. The needlepoint kit had ended up in Iris's hands, who had really taken too it.

"Children," Aunt Petunia announced. "I have talked with Mrs Polkiss, and for Dudley's birthday, we'll be going to the London Zoo, along with her children. Mrs. Fig will be accompanying us. We'll be going by rail and bus, so pairing rules will be as follows: Dudley with Noel, Harry with Bradley, Lily with Primrose, Violet with Iris. And no, Violet you can't switch with Harry. Attire will be jeans and full t-shirts, as well as sneakers. We'll be taking the train to Waterloo, then on the Underground to Camden Town. The bus will be the 274. We should arrive just before noon, assuming everyone is ready in an hour."

Harry knew that everyone would be ready. Aunt Petunia ran a very tight household when it came to scheduling. You had to when there was exactly one full bath in the house, though a pair of showers had been made in the back of the garage. There was no enclosure around them yet, though, so there was always a risk that someone would open the garage door when you were showering. It had happened to Lily once after a mud pie fight. That had caused one of the more memorable cases of accidental magic on her part, even better than when he turned his teacher's hair blue. Every single person in visual range had ended up wearing a blindfold, including Mister Wilson, who ended up crashing his scooter into the bush.

Harry turned to his paired younger, who to be perfectly honest wasn't all that bad of a younger to watch. That being said, a warning was warranted. "Whatever you do, don't let me see you going anywhere that you can fall into the exhibits."

* * *

Harry Potter returned to Number Four Privet Drive with his hand firmly on Bradley Dursley's shoulder. The seven-year-old's clothes were covered in dirt from his many falls at the zoo. It had seemed like the boy was doomed to fall through just about everything. Plate glass had broken, cast iron railings had split, and in one case he'd actually managed to fall through a set of wooden steps going above an exhibit. It was only Harry's rather fortunate skill with snakes that had prevented Bradley from being squeezed to death by a python.

"Dirty clothes off now, Bradley," Petunia ordered. "Harry, see to it that he takes a good bath, and then I want him in the corner until Vernon comes home."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry said. "You heard your mother, Badly." Harry caught his aunt's smirk at the nickname. She'd never use it, but Harry knew that his aunt like to create nicknames for her children. Dudley had at least a half dozen, and Lily had twice that.

As he marched his cousin into the back of the garage, he could hear Lily passing him into through the door to the house. "I'm going to get a book, and I'm borrowing your room for the next hour, Harry. I don't want anyone to bother me."

"You've got it," Harry shot back over his shoulder. He often let Lily borrow his room for a bit of privacy. He knew that every once in a while her younger sisters really got to Lily, just like his younger boy cousins got to him. Sometimes he let Dudley use his cupboard too, but most of the time he and Dudley just ended up talking to each other in the tree in the back garden or some other place. The younger Dursleys knew better than to approach when Dudley and Harry where whispering to each other. "Bradley, wait for the garage door to close all the way before you drop your drawers."

"Iris, Rosie, don't bother Lilium, you are both on the edge. You were warned about her time," Petunia said. "Find something quiet to do. Violet, you may get a small bar of Dairy Milk for yourself and give another to Lilium. You've both earned it. My younger ones on the other hand, Noel, you may not watch the telly this evening. Dudley, if you don't mind, get some trousers for Bradie."

The garage door now being entirely down, Harry watched as his cousin stripped of his clothes. It seemed that Bradley had really muddied himself up. He was even muddy under his briefs. "Looks like we're going to have to put these to soak, Brad. How do you manage to get so dirty?" He had noticed that Bradley had started to like people to call him by the shortened rather than full name. He was fairly certain that neither parent had caught on to it, yet.

"It's a gift," Bradley said, turning on the shower and ducking his dirty blond hair into the stream.

"Soap," Harry reminded as Bradley picked up one of the beige wash clothes and began to scrub.

Bradley picked up the soap and smelled it. "She got the spring scented stuff again!" he groused, before lathering up his cloth and began to scrub.

Harry watched carefully. Bradley had a reputation for not quite washing everything, and this was a regular task for him and Dudley. Making sure the younger children washed up, whither it was hands for meals or whole bodies before bedtime, had been a regular chore for them both since they were at least seven. At least Lily now handled the girls.

* * *

On July Thirty-First, it was Harry Potter's turn for a birthday morning. There was no pounding down the stairs by Dudley that day. Instead there was ultimately unsuccessful attempt at sneaking down the stairs by all of Harry's cousins. Harry let them get away with it. Not to say he didn't intend to make sure they knew they failed.

"Good Morning Dursleys," Harry said as he exited, right behind Noel.

"We failed again, this year, didn't we?" Lily said, noticing Harry's big grin.

"Dudley came down at five thirty-eight, impressively early for you in the summer, Big-D, but I heard the alarm go off at five thirty and the toilet flush at five thirty-five," Harry began. "Lily, you got up without an alarm, at least that I could hear, but your were given up by you co-conspirators who at five forty-one addressed by your name, complaining about getting up early in the summer. That's what got you Iris. Violet, I believe you were the third one done in that group, but you went back up to get Bradley, you hit the creak in the fifth step rather badly. Then back down you knocked him into the railing Now, Primrose, you almost succeed. I didn't hear you go down to the last step, when you jumped over it. Noel, were you even trying? Whistling 'Rule Britannia' as you came down."

"Harry, I hate to say it, but Noel got you," Dudley said. "He was down here when I got down here."

"Used the toilet sound to cover my descent," Noel said, the five-year-old smirking. "Then sat outside your cupboard until Primrose passed me."

"Okay, it looks like we have a winning birthday sneak," Harry said, moving to take his seat at the head of the table. "Finally. Three straight years of failures are over. Sausages ready, Dudley?"

"Just about," Dudley said as an owl suddenly flew through the window, landing right in front of Harry.

"Hello, what's this," Harry said, noticing that there was a letter attached to the barn owl's left leg. He removed it as the owl raised the leg to make it easier. "It's addressed to me."

"Bet that's the letter from Hogwarts that Mum said was coming for you," Lily said.

"No bet," Harry said, looking up to spot his aunt entering, not having the paleness of her morning sickness for the first time in weeks. "No one else would address a letter directly to my cupboard under the stairs. Good Morning Aunt Petunia."

"I see you got you letter, come on, Harry, open it and read it," Petunia said. "It's been a long time since I got to hear your mother's letter, though I suspect I'll be getting quite an echo of it in a couple years when Lily gets hers."

Harry carefully broke the wax seal and took out the two sheets of paper. Unfolding it, he placed it on the table and adjusted his glasses before beginning to read.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, OMFC, GS, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Wizards.

"Dear Mr. Potter

"We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

"Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

"Yours sincerely,

"Minerva McGonagall

"Deputy Headmistress"

Harry put down the letter, and looked at the second sheet. "I think this is a supply list," Harry said, passing it to his aunt.

"Write your acceptance and give it the owl," Petunia said. "We'll be going to Diagon Alley for your birthday to get your supplies."

"How are we going to get there?" Harry asked.

"I think we'll take the train, then the tube," Petunia said. "We might come back via the Knight Bus, if it's still cheaper. I always enjoyed riding that.

* * *

Harry figured that the Dursley's presented a particular image as they flooded into the Leaking Caldron. Uncle Vernon couldn't come, as he had to work. He put long hours in as a Director at Grunnings, so that wasn't a surprise, which meant that his Aunt Petunia was leading the mass of Dursley's. Aunt Petunia had surprised Harry when she'd come down wearing totally atypical attire. It looked like Petunia had pulled out something she'd last worn in the seventies, with a garnish peach and pink flower dress instead of her usual solid color outfits. She wore a pendent that consisted of a triangle with a circle in it, bisected by a line.

All the boys had gone for their typical on a outing attire, jeans and Chelsea jerseys. The girls had pulled out similar attire, but with t-shirts proclaiming them as girl genius. None of the boys were willing to object to the description.

Harry got halfway across the room before a freak burst of air pushed his bangs aside. It was fate.

"Harry Potter!" one of the wizards cried out, and immediately he was surrounded by witches and wizards wanting to introduce themselves. One of the wizards managed to knock over Primrose, causing the little girl to burst into tears. Somehow Dudley managed to get to his littlest sister's side, but no one could get back to Harry's save Lily, who had somehow managed to remain directly behind him.

"Back off from Harry!" Lily yelled, but it wasn't enough. In fact the press of bodies got even harder around them.

"Back off, let the boy breathe," came a gravelly voice, as a tall giant of man pushed his way though. Harry smiled as the man managed to push aside just enough people to make some space around Harry. "Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts," he introduced himself. "You've grown up a bit since I brought you to the Dursleys."

"Thanks Hagrid," Harry said. "This is my cousin, Lily. Aunt Petunia and the rest of her brothers and sisters are around her somewhere." Even with the space around him cleared a bit, he couldn't see his other cousins.

"They just got pushed a bit away," Hagrid said. "Let the boy's aunt and cousins through, Crockford, Fletcher. Me beasts behave better than this. On your way to Daigon, I assume, Harry?"

"Gringotts and school shopping," Harry replied, as a man with a purple turban approached. He could also see his cousins and Aunt Petunia through gaps in the crowd. It looked like his younger cousins were probably going to reach his side first, even if they didn't obey Hagrid.

"Harry, this is Professor Quirell, he'll be your defense against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts," Hagrid introduced. Noel was already reaching Hagrid's side, having slipped between a pair of what Harry was sure were hags.

"Not that you need it, eh, Potter," Quirell said, as he stepped closer. He was nearly knocked over when Bradley came out from behind him.

Harry smiled, remembering his aunt's lessons in politeness, he held out his hand. Just as he did so, Lily's other sisters came up beside her. Somehow all of his cousins save Dudley had managed to form a circle around Professor Quirell. "Harry Potter. I look forward to coming to Hogwarts and your class."

And just as his hand was about to reach Quirell's, the professor jerked back as if he was burnt by something. The description became quite apt, as Harry noticed a tendril of smoke raising from the man's hand. In fact Harry could suddenly smell the putrid scent of burning flesh.

"Master, save me," the Professor suddenly cried out, before he suddenly was surrounded by tendrils of smoke, coming from every opening in the man's robes. Then suddenly the man was ash, and collapsed to the floor, leaving behind a black smoke like wraith.

"Curse you Potter!" the wraith cried out. "I shall have my revenge!"

And with that the wraith departed, obviously intending to go through Harry, but something prevented the wraith from going that way, and it curved upwards, before shooting through the ceiling as if the very presence of Harry Potter and his cousins propelled it break the sound barrier.

Hagrid looked down at the ash remains of Professor Quirell. "It looks we're going to need another Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. Didn't even make a year. Damned shame, that."


	2. Diagon Alley

_**Author's Note:**_ _The muse has been all over the past couple of months. The reviews encouraging more of this story were a primary cause of that. Good encouraging reviews revive stories put aside as well. Fortunately at least one story got a chapter done, finally. I had quite a bit of fun creating all the families and a street where due to the interactions of the wards and the increasing number of magical children to power them by there is an incredibly large baby boom. I advise anyone moving to this particular Privet Drive to be prepared for very large families._

 _I'll give a bit of a plan for where this story is going at the end, but before I go on to Chapter Two, I'd like to thank several people for their help on this chapter: Joey Zoot, Unicornzvi, Brad Coleman, Alysson deMerel, Peter Rubinsteine, and Shalon Wood_.

* * *

 **Chapter Two** Diagon Alley

Somehow Petunia Dursley had separated her family from the crowd that had gathered around them, and after a brief chat with the auror who had taken charge of the scene around the ashes of the late Defense Professor, managed to get a bit of a lead on them, heading down Diagon Alley. It was enough of a lead and they were moving fast enough that they all reached Gringotts before many could take action spotting on the passing Boy-Who-Lived. Full pairings were in force, but as they reached the bank, Dudley and Noel split, allowing Harry and Bradley to take position right behind Petunia.

This wasn't the first time that Petunia or any of her children had visited Diagon Alley, so the gapping at the wizarding world was kept to a minimum. Usually though she only had two or three of her children, nearly always including Harry, accompanying her. It was, after all, where the conservatorship for her nephew met. Until today she'd managed to keep her visits on the sly. Apparently no one had really expected him in Diagon Alley until today, his birthday. They'd waited for his arrival, and ambushed the group. It was most unfortunate that neither Remus nor Alberforth were available to join them for the meeting with Ite'wold. One adult was not enough to handle all those who had wanted to meet her nephew, even before the fact that Petunia had brought all of her children along.

Upon entering Gringotts, Petunia noticed that all her children were looking around the ornate bank lobby. It seemed that Primrose was a bit scared, based on how she had moved closer to Lily. The others seemed to be taking the goblins in stride, as Petunia stepped up to a free teller. She looked at the inscription on the front of the counter and said, "Teller Grafphar, I am Petunia Dursley, guardian of Harry James Potter. We have come to see to his finances through this bank. Everything shall be in order for this review, else the amount withdrawn today shall be a great deal larger than what is required for his school supplies." Petunia smiled with a big open smile, showing her teeth.

"Madam Dursley, Account Master Ite'wold awaits you in Conference Room Nineteen," Grafphar replied. "Hahmer, show the Dursleys and Mister Potter the way."

"Primrose, show Grafphar and Hahmer your fierce smile," Petunia said, addressing her youngest, before they could move to follow Hahmer.

Primrose looked up at her mother made an off-center smile before turning to Grafphar and making her best open smile, showing her teeth. "Mummy says that goblin pies aren't good, why is that?" she said innocently looking up at Grafphar.

Grafphar dropped from his high seat, and bent down slightly to look the four-and-a-half-year-old right in eyes. Unlike her earlier fearful moves, Primrose kept her eyes matched on Grafphar. "Because no one can catch a good goblin to make good goblin pies," Grafphar said, with a perfectly matched grin.

"Oh. I guess they should just eat cake," Primrose said, still looking at Grafphar with the same open smile.

"Oh yes, let them eat cake," Grafphar replied, stepping back and looking up at Petunia "Petunia Dursley, even your youngest is ever bit as impudent as you were when I met you as a young runner. May your enemies flee your smile without even the shirt on their backs."

"I see you remember, Grafphar," Petunia replied. "I shall look forward to the day when you rise to account manager, though I do hope Ite'wold doesn't go soon. He has served gloriously."

It wasn't long before Petunia and her family arrived at Conference Room Nineteen. As usual, Ite'wold was waiting by keeping himself fit by doing forms with his favored goblin picks, which Petunia knew was an ancient goblin martial art, designed for both mining and battle. As soon as he finished his current position, the picks were tossed to land perfectly in the mounts behind the goblin desk, and he did a double flip, landing in his chair, and somehow putting his suit jacket on at the same time.

"Petunia Dursley, it is good to see the battle against the drudgery and dullness has not taken you yet," Ite'wold said. "I see you brought your whole family this time, save Mister Dursley. I do hope the battle has not felled him."

"Vernon has just been promoted to Director, and is putting in long hours to clean up from his predecessor. Fortunately he has yet to require bloodstains to be cleaned from the office," Petunia said. "You were right that Robertson was inflating figures, and Mr. Grunnings was most appreciative of the discovery. Today, however, it is my turn to introduce my sister's son to the Wizarding World and his finances."

"Very well, Mister Potter, please take the center seat, and Petunia, to his right, Miss Lily to his left. The rest of you may take the bench. Hahmer, before you return to Grafphar, I believe that Miss Violet and Mister Dudley were looking at volume three of The Sons of Warban the last time they accompanied you? Mister Bradley, perhaps you can take up the reading of volume one, chapter six to your youngers in place of Miss Lily? If this is all agreeable to you, Petunia."

"It is, the Sons of Warban is a goblin classic that I wonder why is not available for purchase. Though I do hear that the last human publisher of it was burned down for the commentary text."

"Indeed. We were avenged," Ite'wold said as everyone took their places. "Now, Mister Potter, as you have reached the age of eleven, you are entitled to know more about your family's finances, and so is your sister, by virtue of your age."

"Sister?" Harry asked. "I'm an only child."

"By birth you are, but by blood, as I've previously told your Aunt Petunia, Lily was conceived as the child of James and Lily Potter, transferred in utero upon Lily's death to Petunia's womb. As such she has an interest in the Potter fortune, a trust and a dowry. For now the Potter fortune is entrusted to a conservatorship led by your Aunt along with Remus Lupin and Alberforth Dumbledore. And I have not managed to get Mister Lupin to accept a reasonable stipend for his assistance in seeing to the upkeep of the Potter Estates."

Harry then looked over at Lily. Petunia had told Lily just the night before, as she knew that it was going to come out today. She knew she should have told Harry too, but she'd put off telling Lily too long, and he'd been asleep by the time she'd sent Lily back to the room she shared with Violet. There hadn't been any time in the morning. His eyes looked at his sister, locking on her gaze. "Well, everyone does say you look like our Mum," he concluded. "You get the cupboard while I'm at Hogwarts, after Noel has his day."

"Privacy at Privet, the only privilege of a Potter," Lily parrotted back a long repeated line.

Harry smiled back at his sister. "Now what is the Potter Estates," Harry said, turning back to Ite'wold.

"The Potters are an old family, landed magicals," Ite'wold said. "The Potter Estate, to which you are the only known heir, consists of over a dozen plots of land, including one in Diagon Alley, currently that brings a good amount of rental income. There is also the royalties on Sleakeasy Hair Potion, which are the personal income of the head, having been developed by your grandfather, Fleamont. The Godric's Hollow property that you lived in until your parents death still remains Potter property, as do several other small properties currently leased for terms ending anywhere from seven to twenty-seven years from now. The Potter Estate has a modest operating balance at the moment, and as for investments, while they could be more aggressive, they are well positioned."

Petunia could tell that Harry was about to ask if he could help the family with the money, which would not have been wise at this point, so she interrupted him as his he started to take a deep breath. "Harry, as your conservator and guardian, I have made appropriate use of your family funds, well documented and signed off on, to cover your expenses. I don't want you to think you have ever been a burden, nor that we are living off your fortune. Where an expense is for you alone, it is taken care of, paid as if James and Lily were taking care of it. Otherwise, you are a member of my family, and the Dursleys do not treat family differently."

Harry looked long at Petunia, and she could tell that her long standing work to make sure that her nephew was treated like all of her children had sunk in. Petunia figured she'd get something when Harry got to see his trust vault, but for now, he would listen, learn, and leave things in her hands.

* * *

VBDF

* * *

Lucius Malfoy was very careful with his contacts, for the most part. It would not do for him to get caught after all the money he'd spent keeping himself from Azkaban for being a Death Eater. That didn't mean that he wasn't above more bribery to get his way. There was very little that couldn't be greased to go his way with a bag of gold or two. Besides that, he had a very good reason to be coming out of Knockturn Alley. He owned it, mostly.

As he emerged from Knockturn Alley, he spotted a large family coming out of Gringotts, heading in his direction. It was obviously a mudblood family, given their distinct lack of robes, The riot of colors of the mother's dress was something that even Dumbledore wouldn't chose to wear, and his eccentric tastes were way out of the norm. The old warlock could get away with it, but Malfoy always thought that a good wizard should go with solid classic colors.

"Hold up Bradley!" the mudblood mother shouted as one of her young boys, far ahead of the rest, reached Malfoy.

Malfoy suddenly felt a burning sensation over and in his dark mark, just as the boy who he judged to be about seven or eight with short blond hair brushed passed him. It cooled a bit, then a four or five-year-old girl with shoulder length stringy blond hair passed on the closer side, and the mark not only burned, but he could see a small flame on his deep Slytherin green robe right above the mark.

The children started passing quicker. A boy five or six breezed by the passing of his messy straw seeming to feed the fire. An eight-year-old girl with longer washed out blond hair caused the flame to suddenly spread down to his wrist, as he grasped his cane in preparation to draw his wand, hoping to put out the fire. Then a six or seven year old girl, whose hair was halfway between the two other girls in length and color, tripped, knocking the cane out of his hands. Finally a red head who reminded him of that annoying mudblood whose death had been the last his master had accomplished passed, and his whole right arm was now in flames.

Suddenly Lucius found himself soaked as someone had finally taken the initiative to cast Aguamenti to put out the flames. But the pain and burning sensation did not stop until the mother passed along side the black haired and glasses wearing dark haired elven-year-old boy who could only be the Boy-Who-Lived.

Lucius picked up his cane as the gaggle of mudbloods headed into Madam Mulkins. His robe was ruined, his arm was a burnt mess. He had to get to a healer now. With a crack he was gone from Diagon and in the lobby of Saint Mungo's.

* * *

VBDF

* * *

Madam Mulkin's was a very good deal when it came to clothes. At least that was what Aunt Petunia had told Harry several times. This wasn't the first time he'd been to the place, but usually he'd hidden his identity more. He wasn't going to wear that damned cap anymore, though. There was a time for hiding, and that was before had gotten his Hogwarts letter.

This was actually his sixth time visiting the tailor, and had been a couple years. Most of the time it was the girls that got things to wear from the wizarding world, though all of Harry's socks and undershirts were already from the instock shelves towards the middle of the shop floor. At the moment, though he was back quite a bit further as Hogwarts robes were tailored. The ties weren't of course, but the ivory shirt of a first year, black trousers, and back robe were. He'd already selected a rather nice belt made of some sort of iridescent skin.

"Ouch!" Harry cried out as pin poked through the robe to his shoulder.

"Sorry, young man," the seamstress said. "It looks like I need to let that arm hole just a bit."

"That's okay," Harry replied. He wasn't the only boy being fit out for Hogwarts. There were a good half a dozen stations just on the boys side of the store. At the moment they were all filled. Across from Harry was a boy named Dean, and to Dean's right was Ernie and left was Justin. To Harry's right was Neville, and left Balise. "I told you Neville, it happens to everyone." Thus far, by Harry's count, Neville had been stuck a good dozen times.

"Well, I guess so," Neville said. Harry didn't think the boy had a lot of confidence in himself. He seemed to be rather self-depreciating, actually. A seamstress was already taking done with him.

"Come on, Neville, we have a meeting at Gringotts in just a few minutes," an older woman with a vulture in her hat said. "Have the finished robes sent to Foggybottom Manor."

"Yes ma'am," the seamstress said.

"See you at Hogwarts, Neville," Harry said, cheerfully. As soon as they were all done, Aunt Petunia was taking everyone for ice cream, and he was looking forward to it. "Dean, I don't care what you say, Manchester U is not better than Chelsea."

"You finished eleventh last year," Dean replied. "You were literally middle of the table. We were fourth, and won the European Cup Winner's Cup."

"And what exactly was the score the last two times you came against us ... three two?" Harry said, as the seamstress began taking the robes off Harry. "You don't have to bring an Arsenal to beat Man U. Wait, they beat you both times last year too."

"You were right, football fans are as fanatical as Quidditch ones," Balise said.

"Just wait until you encounter an Arsenal fan, they're brutal," Seamus said. "I'm pretty sure they were the cause of that brawl at Old Tafford. They lost more points for it, at least."

"There you go, Mister Potter," the seamstress said. "They should be ready for you in about an hour or so, or we can owl them to you, if you would prefer."

"I think Aunt Petunia wanted to pick them up, but I'll make sure before we leave the shop," Harry promised. "See you at Hogwarts, guys," he said as he jumped off the stool and waved.

He found Bradley standing by the gap in the partition and immediately could tell that his cousin had been misbehaving. There was nothing like that stiff, you're staying there until I do something about you posture among the Dursleys. "What did you do this time, Brad?"

"Knocked over a mannequin while chasing Iris," Bradley admitted. "I'm not to move until everyone else is done shopping."

"Well, I'll keep you company," Harry promised. He knew how boring it got when Aunt Petunia made you stay.

"It might take a while," Bradley said. "Mum's having Iris fitted for a new Sunday best dress."

"Oh great," Harry groaned. Iris was particular about her dresses. This could take ages.

* * *

VBDF

* * *

This was going to be the last real day that Lily Dursley could go play with her cousin who was really her brother Harry. Lily was slowly coming to terms with the fact that she really wasn't a Dursley. It didn't seem like it mattered much, after all she still got the stories of the twenty-two hour labor she put Mum through. It had explained why she looked more like her namesake Aunt Lily than the rest of her sisters. Quite frankly, Lily had always stood out with her fiery red hair from all the other Dursleys. Well, with the exception of that one time when something in the shampoo had turned all the Dursley children's hair red.

It was a bright sunshiny day near the end of August, not quite record high for the day, but as Mister Gallegher often said, still hot enough burn scalps off. That meant one thing to Lily and the other children of Privet Drive, it was time to go to the duck pond.

The duck pond was mostly forgotten by the adults of Little Whinging. It was in the area reserved for development as a town park, but funding had been cut before the full plan had been implemented. A great deal of the plan for Greater Whinging had been cut, especially when the Metropolitan Green Belt had cut through the area. So it's existence had been slowly receded from most people's memories.

The copse of trees hid the duck pond, from general view. The best way to get to it was to go along the hedgerow marked the end of Privet Drive, turn right through a small gap just before Mr. Gallegher's rose garden, and then it was just a hop on to leftover small rock wall, a jump over a gap, and you were right at the pond. It was a fairly broad pond, but not very deep, and on a hot summer day, the ducks unwillingly shared it with a gaggle of children from Privet Drive who jealously guarded the secret of its existence.

When Lily reached the shore of the pond, she was by no means the first to arrive. She waved at Carrie Matthews, who at fourteen was obviously serving as the teen in charge today, as she sat on a branch of an oak tree that overlooked the pond. Despite Carrie's current condition, she was quite trusted to child mind by all the parents on the street. Lily thought that it must be getting hard for the girl to get up there with her growing belly, as she stripped off her clothes and jumped into the pond.

She came up next to her littlest brother Noel, who judging from the mud in his hair had already been making mud pies on the muddy south bank. "Hey Noel, why the glum face?"

"Timmy had to go home to finish his packing," Noel said as he treaded water next to Lily. "I don't want him to go. Especially since Harry's going away too."

"I know," Lily said. Noel and Timothy had been inseparable since both of them had learned to walk. "I'm going to miss Harry, when he goes to Hogwarts." She admitted it audibly for the first time. "But we're here to enjoy the last days of summer with him. You'll be able to write them both, and I'm sure that Timothy will be coming back to visit his grandparents every once in a while, as they're not moving, just him and his mother while she's at Uni."

"Yeah, maybe," Noel said, as Violet and Bradley, already stripped, jumped into the pond. They were quickly followed by their best friends, Colin Creevey and Porta Polkiss. The splash of their arrival quickly swamped Noel and Lily.

Bradley came up beside Noel, and grabbed his little brother. "No glum faces, Noel," Bradley ordered, as he spun Noel around to face him. "I'm under orders from Timmy to make sure you don't waste a moment in the pond and come out with wrinkly fingers."

"Good luck with that, boy and tomboys," Lily said, addressing the four who were now surrounding Noel. "I'm going to go get Harry and Dudley."

"See if they'll throw us around," Violet said, before Lily dived under the water and headed towards where she'd spotted Harry and Dudley swimming.

Lily came up in the middle of her older brothers, genetic and by name, inserting herself between them as they raced across the pond. Despite the fact that she was almost two years younger than Dudley, she easily kept pace with them until they reached the other side of the pond, a stroke ahead of them. "So slow boys," Lily said.

"Slow?" Dudley asked, as both of them stood up and waded into the shallow edge of the pond, to the point of where the water came up only to about half way up above their knees. It was just short of reaching Lily's butt.

"Yes," Lily replied, before giving her usual hug to both, before they could take a seat in the shallows, as they often did after their laps around the pool. The Dursley Family was very affectionate between each other. She got a kiss on the cheek from them both after she ended her embrace. "And I'm sure that you're about to say you weren't racing, just exercising."

"She's got us pegged," Harry replied, sharing a look with Dudley. Then he looked at Lily, his deep green eyes locking up with hers. "And what, pray tell, have you come over here to request?"

"Oh, nothing much," Lily downplayed, "I just think that Noel needs a bit of cheering up since Timothy's mother called him home to get ready to leave Privet Drive. Maybe some strong older brother who loves to lift things might want to play toss the little ornament?"

"He's getting a little big for me to do that, and you know it won't be just him, don't you?" Dudley replied. Lily looked at him with her head slightly cocked to the left. "Okay, enough with the look. I'll do it." He dived back in and swam back towards Noel.

"Now, come, sit, Lily, and tell big brother exactly why you've been avoiding me since Diagon Alley," Harry said, taking a seat in the shallow water and slapping the water to his right to indicate where he wanted Lily to sit.

Lily sat down next to Harry, and felt his arm going around her back, pulling her up against him. For a moment she watched as Dudley snuck up behind Noel, picked him up, then tossed him towards the center of the pond. Dudley was quickly swarmed by every kid around Noel's age, demanding their turn, and there were a lot of them. Lily mentally counted up the ones starting Nursery with Noel, Michael Stone, Caleb Adams, Albert Palmer, John Polkiss, and Fenton Creevey, could there really be six five-year-olds this year? Of course Primrose had to attach herself to that group, and get the biggest throw of them all from her big brother. Dudley said that tossing the ornaments, as he called it, helped his muscles, and he was quite strong for his age.

"Lily," Harry prompted again.

"You know I'm the only red head on the street, not just in the family," Lily said, leaning against her brother. "It makes me unique, but especially as I got my little sisters, I started to feel a bit out of place. We had some pictures of Aunt Lily – I'm not exactly sure what I should call her now – and we always said that I look just like her, and now I know why. But now that I know I kind of feel like I'm stealing from you. I probably hadn't even started showing a sign on Aunt Lily when You-Know-Who killed her."

"No, you're not stealing from me," Harry said. "I mean Dad had already started the paperwork to set up your dowry and trust accounts. And even if he hadn't, well, Aunt Petunia may have always insisted that a Potter was just as good as a Dursley, and my last name doesn't mean anything among family, but it really does mean something. I know I'm not the last Potter, the last bit of James and Lily, in the world. I'm not alone and that makes all the difference."

"You live on Privet Drive, it's impossible to be alone," Lily said as Iris sent up a big splash in front of them as she made a diving catch for the ball that Edwin Creevey had tossed her way in their keep away game with Georgina Polkiss.

"That's certainly true, but it doesn't stop you from feeling like you are, every once-in-a-while," Harry replied. Somehow the splash had not hit his glasses. It was one of those magical miracles that regularly happened to all the children Harry's age and younger on the street. He pulled Lily into a sideways hug.

After a moment's silence, during which Lily enjoyed the close presence of her brother, finding strength in his understanding of her, she noticed that some kids were missing that she would have expected to be at the pond were missing. "Where is Piers?"

"Apparently he's been assigned the task of making sure that Dennis, Godwin, and Crispen properly clean the results of their slime fight, including washing Mr. Gallegher's DB4," Harry replied. "Piers thinks they've ruined his whole afternoon. It's the bane of being the oldest in the family. You're expected to put taking care of your youngers first, sometimes. I, at least, share the role with Dudley. You're going to have a lot more issues that we did, especially as Aunt Petunia gets closer to her due date. She really leans on the olders the last month or so."

Bradley suddenly emerged from the bottom of the pond with a handful of mud which he preceded to dump on his older sister Violet's hair. Lily could hear Violet giggle, before she dived down as well. It was obvious that the two had just started another mud fight, a regular event that usually resulted in the need for a big clean up. Fortunately the two had access to the tree house that Colin had convinced Mr. Gallegher to build. Lily wasn't exactly sure how Colin, Bradley, Porta, and Violet had arranged it, but it was their private get away, allowing them to clean up with Mr. Gallegher's back garden hose pipe instead of streaking down the street covered in mud to their respective homes.

The four loved to have mud fights. At least they were no longer involving the whole street. Lily vividly remembered her run home, and then the embarrassment of the garage door opening as she showered off in the open shower at the back of the garage. There was a difference between being exposed swimming, and one's Dad opening the door to outside letting everyone see and hear you singing in the shower.

"Wait, I'm going to have to make sure Badly gets clean, oh God," Lily realized.

"Yes, and he's going to be the oldest boy, which is absolutely no help for you," Harry replied, as Lily recalled the one time so far she'd been tasked to make sure Bradley had washed. He'd been dirty behind his ears and had forgotten to wash between his toes. "I think you can probably train Violet to help you, maybe taking care of Noel and Primrose. Bradley is going to be a pain."

"Is it possible for you to be a day student at Hogwarts?" Lily asked, her mind replaying all the trouble that Bradley had gotten into, mostly due to issues with cleanliness and roughhousing.

"It's in Scotland, Lily," Harry reminded her. "It's going to be hours just getting there on the Hogwarts Express. I hardly think that they'd provide a quicker way to go back and forth to children."

"Will you at least write?" Lily asked morosely. "I doubt Dudley will."

"At least twice a week," Harry said. "And if Dudley doesn't, you have my permission to flood Royal Mail with requests. I'll send Hedwig too. At the very least she'll steal his bacon. Now let's get back to swimming. I bet I can reach Carrie' tree before you can."

"You're on Harry."

* * *

 _ **Next up:**_ _A Death Eater tried to follow the Dursley's home. Harry gets on the Hogwarts Express, and Lily finds herself sliding into the role of the oldest Dursley. Oh, and I might get far enough for Harry to be sorted. It depends._


	3. Platform Nine and Three Quarters

_**Author's Note:**_ _The muse has finally given me enough for this chapter to be considered complete. It didn't get as far as I originally thought it would timeline wise, but I think that's a good thing. I've now got Harry to meet more potential friends, though not all of them will end up in the same house. I think I've also figured out the structure of the story going forward. The only thing I don't know yet is who is going to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. It won't be anyone who did so in canon at any time, for sure. I think it will be a surprise for next chapter._

 _Before I go on to this chapter's text, I'd like to thank the following for their feedback on this chapter: joeyzoot, unicornzi, Brad Coleman, Alysson deMerel, Tommy King, Cal.m, meteroicshipyards, AKindOfMagic, and jdleonard88._

* * *

 **Chapter Three** Platform Nine and Three Quarters

Augustus Rookwood woke to the sound of a series of regular beeps. He could tell he was restrained to a bed, and his skin felt like it was stretched across his body. His right arm was burning with pain. With great effort he opened his eyes. It didn't help the Unspeakable Death Eater determine his location. The white room was virtually featureless, and smelled some sort of sharp clean scent that he was also unfamiliar with.

Suddenly a young woman wearing a light blue dress and a strange white hat came into his limited field of vision, her mouth covered with a mask. "I see you're finally awake, sir," the woman said. "I shall let the doctor know."

Rookwood's eyes widened with horror. He knew where it was now. He was in a muggle hospital. His eyes darted around, and tried to find something to determine how long he'd been there. Nothing, Nothing, Nothing. He'd been under the care of the butchering muggle doctors. Who knew what they had already done to him. They could have cut things off, screwed him, or even put him in stitches.

He tried to remember how he'd ended up in this place. Rookwood cast his mind back. He'd been following that muggle family with the Boy-Who-Lived, intending on putting an end to the half-blood who had murdered the Dark Lord and all of his family. He had plans of turning the obviously muggle family house into a ruin filled with blood and guts. Of course that required planning and luck. Rookwood believed he had luck.

He'd followed the family out of Diagon Alley, using the burn they were causing his Dark Mark when he lost the sight line. It was fortunate that he, as an Unspeakable, had a full muggle kit, including a valid Travelcard. Otherwise he would have lost them going through the barriers into the Underground.

He'd barely managed catch the train they boarded at Waterloo, which was apparently a stopper to Whinging Central. It was a Thumper. Wizards, if they ended up riding British Rail, generally ended up riding mostly rural services. Rookwood was very familiar with Thumpers and Pacers as well, the rough rail bus of many a service. They were often crowded, the unconditioned coaches filled with the smell of sweaty workers on their way home from work. They were noisy and uncomfortable, even more so if the windows were open.

He tried to be as far away from the Dursleys as possible, but they'd sat right in the middle of the train. Even at the back of the other car, he couldn't stop the burn, and only a conjured ice cube under his sleeve prevented his mark from catching fire. He went through three cubes before the Thumper left Greater London.

Then the Thumper entered the Green Belt, stopping next to a small quaint station, Little Titter. He briefly panicked when just as the Thumper pulled away from the station, the burn started to get less. He frantically looked back at the station, but the platform only had a couple of nuns on it. But the burn didn't get better, so he concluded that the family must have moved farther forward.

The next station, Stryct though, the burn got worse, and he looked out to see the family stepping onto the platform. He quickly got up and muscled his way off the train, grimacing as the burn got stronger. The platform reminded him a bit of Hogsmeade in it's arrangement. They were on platform one, so of course the family of muggles had to cross over using the bridge. He watched, letting them build a lead, as the oldest boy picked up his littlest sister and carried her up the stairs.

Rookwood waited until they were half way across before he started up the bridge, his hand holding his pained arm, right over his Dark Mark. It almost felt like it was broken, rather than burning now. Out of the station he followed them. Down the walk, past a school of some sort, the woman herded her children. Rookwood wasn't used to walking so much, and the pain went higher.

His arm was aching, burning. His legs were sore and seemed to be transfiguring themselves into lead. Rookwood didn't know how much further he could walk, but he took greater strides with new energy when the children picked up speed, an obvious sign that they were almost home. Ahead of him, he could see the red headed girl turn onto a side road. Above her head he could see the sign proclaiming it to be Privet Drive.

It had been a sunny day with barely cloud in the sky when Augustus Rookwood had gotten off the train. Suddenly it wasn't sunny anymore. Out of nowhere clouds seemed to concentrate over Privet Drive. It might have been a summer afternoon, but he'd never seen clouds gather quite that quickly. A thunder clap seemed to be right next to his ear, causing him to stumble forward. That's when he got too close to the Dursleys.

First his robes caught fire at his wrist, then it worked up his arm, much like he'd seen happen to Malfoy. A charm he'd precast took effect, as his robes became soaked with ice water, in what he believed was an ingenious reversal of a charm usually used to warm up someone who had fallen into the ice. It almost was enough. It certainly got him closer to Privet Drive.

That was when the bolt of lightning hit him and his robes flashed into burning embers. A second bolt followed the first, and Rookwood knew no more until he'd woken up in the white room. Before the woman could leave, he somehow managed to croak, "What day is it?"

"It's September the First."

* * *

VBDF

* * *

It was September First, and Petunia Dursley was glad that it was also a Sunday, so at least all of the family would be there to see her two eldest off to their respective schools. In the case of Dudley, Vernon would be joining him on the three oh two train from Kings Cross to Cambridge which was the stopper, allowing them to get off just a half mile from Smeltings. The rest of the family would return home to Little Whinging while Vernon wouldn't return until the next day. It was quite fortunate that his boss had actually insisted that Vernon take the day off so Dudley could settle in. Vernon had attributed it to the fact that his boss was a fellow Smeltings alum.

So they somehow managed to get to King's Cross, just in time to be nearly run over by two red headed boys on there way through the wall to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. It was enough to cause just enough of a domino effect that Lily lost her balance and fell into the girl trailing the mother in much the same way that Iris was trailing Petunia.

"Sorry," Lily said to the fellow red headed girl. Petunia couldn't hear the girl's soft response, but it seemed to be accepted, before the girl sped up and followed her mother who was just behind another boy with a cart, probably one of her sons.

Petunia turned to Harry. "Just head for the wall like those boys did, best to do it with a bit of speed. You'll go right through, and we'll be right behind you." Harry nodded, picked up a bit of speed, and soon vanished into the wall. Petunia, Vernon, and the rest of their children quickly followed.

As soon as Petunia cleared the brick wall, she looked up to see Platform Nine and Three Quarters. It was something she'd enjoyed since that first time when they'd taken her sister Lily for the first time. There was the scent of coal smoke in the air as Petunia took a deep breath, surveying the platform. They were pretty close to departure time, so the platform was full of children moving this way and that, manhandling carts and evading embarrassing parents. Petunia had sworn that she'd never be one of those mother, but now...

"I'm going to miss you," Petunia said, as she suddenly lurched over to hug her nephew. She enveloped him in a hug, and could tell his return of that hug was reluctant. Being hugged in public by your aunt was not a sign of being a big boy. Thus both Harry and Dudley had been avoiding them as much as they could. Petunia didn't intend to let him get away today.

Still she let him pull away quicker than she wanted him to. Harry did not, however, stop his sister from giving him a hug. Nor did he stop the progression of his little girl cousins giving a quick hug. He did stop Bradley from jumping up into his arms.

It wasn't long before Harry got onto the train, and all too soon Petunia found herself watching the steam engine and it's classic mark one carriages pull away from the station. Tears, unexpected, and ones that she'd promised herself she wouldn't have found traces down her cheeks. She didn't dry them. To do so would be denying the effect that her nephew had on her, and that was something she had long ago sworn not to do. He may have not been the fruit of her loins but in every way that counted, Harry Potter was Petunia's son.

* * *

VBDF

* * *

Lily Dursley stepped a bit away from the rest of her family as they took their turns hugging Harry. "I think you're going to miss Harry more than you miss me," Dudley suddenly said from right next to her.

"No, but I think Harry's more likely to write," Lily said. "Of course, if you don't write, I'll arrange for Bradley and Noel to come visit you. I think I can convince them that you're dumping them as roommates. You know how much they love being in the room with big brother."

"Anything but that," Dudley said. "I don't know how you girls got the pairs, and us boys ended up with three in one room and the other under the stairs."

"Because I told Harry that the cupboard under the stairs would get him his own room," Lily said. "I knew they wouldn't let me have a room alone, and Primrose was still in the crib, so the bunk beds weren't really an option. We could have ended up with you, Harry, and Bradley, then me Violet, and Iris, with Noel and Primrose sharing a room. It was the initial plan."

"Disaster waiting to happen, there," Dudley said as suddenly bumped from behind by a blond boy who couldn't be more different than Harry. The thin aristocratic boy fell straight back on the platform, having hit the immovable object that was Dudley Dursley. His trunk fell out of his grasp, ending up teetering on the edge of the platform in the gap between carriages.

Before Dudley could do any more than bend down to offer a hand up, the boy scampered back bit. "Stay away from me, muggle. You shouldn't be on the platform."

"I think you might want to rethink that statement," Lily said turning towards the boy had has resumed standing. His robes were obviously effected by his bounce to the ground and slide backwards. Lily could feel the static of her magic in her hair, and knew it was just short of turning into a nimbus of red, as it often did when she was emotion enough to do accidental magic. She brought her hand up, and snapped her fingers. The snap was accompanied by a flash and was nearly loud as thunder.

The boy quickly collected his trunk and got on the train. As soon as the boy was out of hearing range, Dudley turned to Lily and said. "I'm not worried about you as the oldest sibling. Not after that."

Lily smiled as the final whistle blew, just as a young red head the age of her oldest brother scrambled onto the train. "Come on, Dusleys, line up and give honor to Harry!" she cried out.

"Harry? You mean Harry Potter?" a girl maybe half a year older than Lily said, coming up next to her. Lily was pretty sure she'd seen the girl sometime before. "Can I join you?"

"The more the merrier?"

"Ginny Weasley."

The Dursley's lined up by age, with Ginny in between Lily and Dudley, swiftly and as the train began to pull out, each of them snapped to a salute as Harry passed by them. Once the train receded in the distance, however, Lily turned to the girl who'd joined them at the last minute.

"Ginny Weasley ... any relation to Ron?" she asked.

"The youngest of my older brothers," Ginny said. "I don't get to go until next year, so I'm going to have to spend a year alone with mum. I hate being the youngest and only girl, sometimes."

"I've got two years before I go," Lily said. "I think Harry's going to forget totally about me by then, even if I'm actually his little sister."

"Big brothers never remember to write," Ginny groused. "I've got six of them, and I'm lucky to get a single letter from each of them while they're away. Only reason I seem to get letters is when they get hurt. That's how I got letters from both Bill and Charlie last year. I didn't know Harry Potter had a little sister."

"Their was a charm set up that transferred me to Mum's womb when she accepted Harry," Lily admitted. "I didn't find out until six weeks ago. Not that it matters at home. We're all one big family. Eight of us between the ages of four and eleven, and Mum's pregnant again."

"Wow, I didn't think I'd ever meet any family with more children than my family's," Ginny said. "I don't think we'd be as a big of family if it wasn't for the fact that Mum wanted a girl."

"There are a lot of big families in my neighborhood," Lily said, as she noticed that her mother was chatting with a redheaded woman who could only be Ginny's mum. "When I'm old enough, if I'm not at Hogwarts, I'll probably be dragooned into child minding for other families. I'm going to be the oldest at home now, so I'll probably have much more experience than I want. You wouldn't believe what gross things Bradley ends up bringing in the house. Last week he brought in a muddy toad and told Primrose that if she kissed it, it would turn into a Prince."

"Ewweee ... ever have to get their laundry from their rooms?" Ginny asked. "I've got that chore, and they're always so messy and stinky."

"That's a given, with boys," Lily replied. "A few months ago I had to make Noel's bed, and the smell, it almost made me pass out. I took the whole bedding out, opened the window, sprayed deodorant and still it was barely standable."

"Only thing good about my big brothers being away from school is that the bathroom won't be filled with stink pellets until Christmas," Ginny said. "I don't care if they claim that don't use them in the bathroom, it still smells like they did."

"They have no concept of clean," Lily said. "And now the worst of my brothers with that is going to be the eldest boy at home. There is no way the boys room isn't going to be a disaster by the end of the month, if not end of week."

"First thing I'm going to be told to do is probably clean up Ron's room," Ginny said. "I bet I find at least three chocolate frogs."

"I think those are worse than real frogs," Lily said, as her mum approached. "Real frogs don't leave prints on the ceiling. Hi mum."

"Lily, this is Molly Weasley, Ginny's mum." Petunia said. "I see you've met her daughter. I've invited her and her daughter to join us at McDonald's."

"Okay, come on Ginny, I'll show you the way."

* * *

VBDF

* * *

Harry Potter entered the first compartment on the third carriage. He'd gotten on board early enough that there was still a few compartments that only had one or two students in them. This one was occupied by one girl who had a copy of Hogwarts, a History out, and seemed to have be trying to bring her emotions under control. "I have confidence in me," the girl whispered, the hint of the tune in the soft almost too soft to have a true tone.

"I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain," Harry responded in song, causing the bushy haired girl to look up from her gaze at the platform.

"I have confidence that spring will come again," Seamus Finnigan sang.

"Besides, which you see, I have confidence in me," the three chorused.

"As we apparently share the same musical tastes, it is okay we if join you," Harry said. "Aunt Petunia says that I should have a compartment with someone I don't know." He smiled big. Hermione gestured her acceptance. "Apparently friends that meet up on the Hogwarts Express can be very good friends indeed. Mum met Alice Coombs, who apparently was among her best friends, and one of the ones in her will to take care of me. I wonder what happened to her."

Harry had been unaware that Neville Longbottom had been behind him, reaching the compartment door just as he'd mentioned the name. "She was my mum," Neville said softly. "Then come on in, that is if you don't mind, my lady, you were here first. I don't think we actually exchanged names."

"I'm Hermione Granger," the girl said, tentatively. It was obvious that she was still in the process of feeding her courage, as each word was more firm. "And you are?"

"Harry Potter, don't believe what you read," Harry said.

"Why not?" Hermione asked. "You're in ..."

"I know exactly what I'm in, but those authors never met me, never even went to Godric's Hallow as far as we can tell, and most certainly never interviewed anyone who was actually there," Harry said. "And as far as the ever to be damned Boy-Who-Lived and insert strange object, place, or event here, books, they came this close to being shut down by Aunt Petunia and the goblins ... not that I knew anything about that until the beginning of last month. Anyway, I should probably introduce these gentlemen that I met in Diagon Alley. Beside me is Seamus Finnigan, who hails from Armagh in Northern Ireland, I believe, and at the door is Neville Longbottom, whose parents worked with my father as aurors, I understand."

At Hermione's questioning glance, Harry decided to expand on it, "The Auror Office is apparently the magical equivalent of Scotland Yard," Harry said. "At least that's what Ite'wold said. My father was apparently one of the ones that the Goblins really respected, same with both Frank and Alice Longbottom. Ite'wold showed me the plaque that Gringotts puts honored aurors on. He told me that their tale wasn't his to tell though."

"Come on in Longbottom," Hermione Granger said, patting the seat beside her. "The more the merrier."

"Longbottom, Potter, boy am I glad I found you," Blaise Zabini said from the doorway. "I thought I was going to have to sit with Malfoy and his ilk. He thinks he's going to rule the school, because his father's is a Governor." He sat down hard between Harry and Seamus.

"And you are?" Granger asked.

"Blaise6 Zabini, I met these three in Diagon Alley, I hope you don't mind all the boys, but I think Dunbar is on the way. Potter, I assume those blonds with the red head were your cousins?"

"Yes."

"I may have to write an apology to the eldest. I kind of made Malfoy run into him. It didn't go well ... for Malfoy. Fell straight on his pants."

"Dudley Dursley, immovable object," Harry said, as a dark haired girl with a sun burn appeared in the doorway. She was flexing her right arm. "Granger, meet Fay Dunbar, of Bristol Dunbars, not be confused with the Delhi Dunbars, nor the Derby Dunbars, and most certainly not the Rutland Dunbars if you value your life."

"And don't you forget it," Fay Dunbar said before ruining it by breaking into giggles. "I have no idea who half of those Dunbars are." She took a seat next to Hermione. "I was worried that I'd end up with a bunch of boys."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"These boys managed to totally ruin, well not Potter, every attempt I made to meet other girls in my year," Fay said. "They somehow even managed to make me end up in boys' robes."

Harry noticed that Fay's robe fastened on the same side as his did, not the side that Hermione's did. It reminded him of the one time he'd managed to give Iris's shirts to Bradley and the reverse. He could tell that Hermione was about to ask how.

"Don't ask," Fay said. "Just know that you're not stuck with some seriously maligned males ... oh wait, they're all in this compartment. Hello Thomas."

A black boy with pencil tucked behind his ear, stepped into the compartment.

"Granger, this is Dean Thomas, muggle born like you, and the fastest sketch artist I've seen," Fay said. "Thomas, tell me you're not one of those bloody Arsenal fans that Potter warned me about?"

"No, Manchester United," Thomas replied.

"Good choice in teams," Granger replied, much to Harry's dismay, though at least she wasn't an Arsenal fan. "I think we still have room for a couple more." Dean plopped down near the door. There was room for maybe one more opposite him, though Harry would have swore that there was less room earlier.

Just as they were starting to pull out of the station, a red headed boy, who reminded Harry a bit of the twin menaces who had nearly crashed their cart into the rest of his family on their way through King's Cross. "Can I join you? Everywhere else they say is full."

"Well, it will be once you join us," Hermione said, surprising Harry as she began to introduce everyone as Ron's trunk was hefted upwards to the amazing expanding rack. "I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?"

"Ron, Ron Weasley," the boy said with growing confindence.

"Beside me is Seamus Finnigan, our Irish member, Neville Longbottom whose parents were in law enforcement, and Blaise Zabini who has a well justified objection to Malfoys. On the other side is Fay Dunbar of the Bristol Dunbars who are not to be confused ever with the Rutland Dunbars, Dean Thomas who serves as the compartment's resident sketch artist. He's already started sketching us, and I want a copy Dean. And last but no means least, Harry Potter."

"Really?" Ron asked, taking a seat. "Do you have, you know, the scar?"

Harry raised his bangs to show the scar. He thought it was actually a bit cool, so he didn't mind showing it, save when it made him too identifiable in Diagon Alley.

"Cool."

"A bit," Harry admitted. "And before anyone asks again, I have no idea what happened that night, and I don't think anyone does. I wasn't even two, and I'm the sole survivor. Now who wants to play Exploding Snap? I've got an unopened deck."

* * *

 _Next Chapter will include the sorting, as well as Lily dealing with being the eldest at home. I have completed figuring out where everyone will be sorted, and it looks like 9 of the 40 have switched houses, including the entire trio and someone who made a comment about his future house indicates he might not want to stay at Hogwarts._


	4. Sorting

_**Author's Note:**_ _It appears that the muse is liking this story. I've decided that this story will show what a normal year at Hogwarts is like without the big plot inside Hogwarts. Outside Hogwarts, however, there will be some results of encounters with the loving very big Dursley Family. This chapter, though, is a quiet chapter, not doing much more than setting the scene._

 _I decided to make a change to the sorting order to be alpha by first name instead of last name. I also created a sorting method with known characteristics of the 40 in Harry's class, that sorted everyone correctly when by last name. The system enforces an equal number of students but does not enforce an equal split of boys and girls. Then I resorted by first name and resorted everyone. It has resulted in a lot of different placements which should make things interesting._

 _I wish to thank the mailing list Caer Azkaban (now on groups dot io) and the Discord Survivors of Caer Azkaban for their assistance after yahoogroups ceased to provide enough services for many to keep using them._

* * *

 **Chapter Four**

Harry stood with the seven who had shared a compartment with him, awaiting his turn to be sorted. He'd seen the first to be sorted, with Anthony Goldstein having put on the hat. Once the hat cried out "Ravenclaw" and the boy headed to the table with a blue runner on it, the first of Harry's new friends was called up to be sorted.

He was pretty sure that Blaise Zabini was going to end up in Slytherin, and the sorting hat did not disappoint him. Two more Slytherins followed, before Dean Thomas broke the trend and was sorted into Gryffindor. It looked like his friends were going to be in rival houses. Harry thought he could handle that, as long as he didn't end up in either house.

Draco Malfoy was up next, and if what Harry had overheard was expected of the boy, it should be a five second sort into Slytherin. It wasn't. Harry watched as the pale pureblood's face reddened. A minute, two minutes passed, as scowl developed on Malfoy's face. The suddenly, the hat cried out "Then it is Hufflepuff." The Malfoy boy looked like was going to reach up and strangle the hat, but Professor McGonagall lifted it out of his reach too quickly.

Ernie MacMillan became the second Hufflepuff, and then one of the two girls that had shared his compartment, Fay Dunbar, was called up to sit under the hat. Fay hadn't really cared what house she'd end up in, unlike Ron who expected Gryffindor. She spent longer than Malfoy under the hat though not with the same expressions. Her lips moved silently every once in a while, and it seemed like she was in deep thought. "Hufflepuff" was the cry from the hat, in three minutes.

Goyle went to Slytherin, and Abbott to Gryffindor, before Professor McGonagall cried out "Harry Potter!" Harry split from Hermione and Neville and sat on the three legged stool. McGonagall lowered the hat on him.

"Difficult, you are," the hat's voice echoed in Harry's brain. "You could very easily be sorted in any house, and do well in them. You have the bravery of Gryffindor, and your striving to be the best goes well in Slytherin. Perfect report card last term, that would indicate Ravenclaw. Never should I forget Hufflepuff, where your sense of fair play and the values that growing up in such a large family would make you fit quite well.

"Oh, I am so looking forward to sorting your sister Lily, and that little scamp of a cousin Brad of yours. Oh, and all those other magical children on your street. The next few years are really going to be a joy to work with. It has been a long time since a new magical community has appeared in Britain. But where to sort you."

"Put me where I would help the most," Harry thought.

"Oh, that does point to a house, and a house that may be a little more upset than normal this year. Do no neglect those friends of yours outside your house, but you will be needed and do well in..."

"Hufflepuff!" the Hat said out loud.

Harry jumped off the stool, and then high fived Hermione Granger as she walked up to be sorted. He received a similar high five from Fay before he found a seat beside her across from a seemingly upset and down Malfoy. Ernine MacMillan had sat further up in the upper years. Looking back up, Hermione was still under the hat. From the way her mouth was moving, it was obvious that she was having a long conversation with the Hat.

"I knew she was going to take a long time," Fay said after a minute. "That girl is so conflicted. I betting that she's arguing for Gryffindor, and probably getting the most information out of the hat regarding sorting that has ever been given. Not that anyone tells us how we're sorted, though my older brother broke the secrecy with me. I bet the Hat really knows a lot. There should be a book on that, I think I'll write one. I'm going to have to interview Hermione about this. Where did the Hat want to put you, Harry?"

"It said I could do well an any house, but I asked to be put where I would help the most, so he put me in Hufflepuff," Harry said.

Then to Harry's surprise, Malfoy spoke up. "I wanted to be in Slytherin, but it told me that I should be in Gryffindor, but I needed to be in Hufflepuff." His tone was flat, and there was a bit of roughness to his voice. "I deserve to be in Sytherin, and I am no Gryffindor."

"No, you're a Hufflepuff," a girl with a Prefect badge said. "You will come to know why you need to be one, and some day, you will even agree with that."

After five minutes, the Hat called out "Ravenclaw" and Harry raised his hand for another high five as Hermione passed and ended up sitting back to back with him at the Ravenclaw table.

"I'm Gabrielle Truman, fifth year female prefect, don't confuse me with my younger brother by eleven months, Gabriel, who somehow managed to get to be the boys prefect with me this year," the girl with long unrestrained brown hair said.

"Our parents are stupid when it comes to names," Gabriel said, from his seat across from Gabrielle. "Welcome to Hufflepuff, Justin. I told you you'd end up in my house, didn't I?"

"Yes," the boy with brown slightly curly hair said, as he took a seat next to Malfoy. "I guess that means I have to do that run in front of Windsor Castle."

"Gabriel," Gabrielle growled at her brother. "You're a prefect now, you shouldn't be betting people to go streaking by castles anymore."

"I didn't bet him to do true streaking, Sis," Gabriel said. "He just has to do it in his underwear with 'Eton is trash' written on the back of his t-shirt, at Christmas."

"As his older sister, Justin, I'm telling you that I will make certain he no longer requires you to do that. There will be a letter to father, little brother."

"I'm taller than you now, 'elle," Gabriel replied.

During the discussion, Harry had turned his attention away from the sorting, but now he returned it, in time for Jones to go to Gryffindor, Corner to Ravenclaw, and Bulstrode to Slytherin. Neville was up next.

The hat seemed to almost swallow Neville as McGonagall lowered it onto his head, going all the way down to the tip of his nose. Neville seemed to tremble for just a moment before sitting up straight. It took about two minutes, with Neville's body language conveying more determination, with his shoulders squaring up, and his hands suddenly clasping together in front of him, as the Sorting Hat said. "Right then, Hufflepuff."

Neville went down the other side from Harry, and took the empty seat across from Fay, between Gabriel and Malfoy. "Welcome to Hufflepuff," both Truman Prefects chorused.

"So, where did the Hat want to put you?" Fay asked. "Harry here could have been in any house, and apparently it considered putting Malfoy in Gryffindor, almost unbelievably."

"Well, it kind of told me to forget about what my Grandmother said, and think about myself," Neville said. "I could have gone to Gryffindor, and I think I would have begged for it, but once Harry was sorted here, Hufflepuff didn't seem so bad, so when the Hat got through discussing what made me fit in each house, I chose Hufflepuff. And the Hat said I was just a tad more Hufflepuff than Gryffindor anyway."

Someone had just been sorted to Ravenclaw, when he returned his attention to the sorting. He only knew that because the boy was sitting down next to Hermione. The Patil sisters were split up, not only in houses, but sorting, with Pansy Parkinson going to Slytherin between Padma to Gryffindor and Parvati to Ravenclaw. Then Roger Malone sat down under the hat.

"Oh, that's the boy who was playing the cello on the Express," Gabriel said. "Wonderful cellist, I hope he gets sorted into Hufflepuff, as we've got an opening in the Hufflepuff String Quartet."

"My brother plays the viola, the instrument for those not good enough for a violin." Gabrielle said, as she somehow pulled her violin out of her robes, played a couple sassy notes and put it back.

"Hufflepuff!" the hat cried out, and Roger Malone was swiftly added to the table on the other side of Justin.

Harry didn't really pay attention to Malone. Professor McGonagall had just called up "Ronald Weasley" to be sorted. He knew that Ron expected to be in Gryffindor, and expected it to be a matter of course. Somehow, Harry didn't think it would be, and as he caught Ron's eyes when the hat touched his head, he became certain of that. Ron's eyes went wide after a minute, and then a half a minute later, his head shook as if he was rejecting something. His eyes closed. The Sorting Hat seemed to press down on Ron's head at that. Then Ron's eyes opened, and he sat up straight. Ron nodded slightly, and the Hat finally announced. "Hufflepuff!

Ron headed right down the aisle between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Harry and Fay both turned and raised their right hands so Ron could high five them as he passed. To Harry's surprise, Hermione mirrored him. Ron slapped Fay's hand with his left, and then his left hit Hermione's hand right Harry's before he took a seat next Harry.

"So, not with Gryffindor with your brothers," Harry offered.

"At least it's not Slytherin," Ron shrugged.

"Hey, Slytherin is the be ... a good house," Malfoy suddenly said, for the first time not in the monotone which he'd used since he'd sat down.

Ron shrugged his shoulders. "My brothers said that all the evil wizards came out of Slytherin. After talking to the Hat, I might need to think about it more. It thought I was a little Slytherin."

"Why did it put you in Hufflepuff, then?" Fay asked.

Ron blushed a bit, before replying softly, "the way I talked to my sister before we left for King's Cross." He did not offer more.

Harry returned his attention to the sorting, where Perks and Finnigan ended up in Gryffindor, and Roper in Slytherin. Then Sean Cornfoot was called up and a minute later had a surprised expression on his face as the Hat announced "Hufflepuff"

Cornfoot almost stumbled to sit down next to Ron. "My father was right," he mumbled. "If only he could be right about his team willing."

Harry noticed that Ron was looking at Cornfoot with a bit of puzzlement, as if he just about to recognize something. He turned his attention back to the sorting, were Sue Li had just gotten sorted into Slytherin and Susan Bones was now sitting under the Hat.

Unlike many of those that Harry had watched get sorted, Bones sat perfectly still, her hands resting on her knees. She didn't look nervous, or especially confident either. Her sorting was the fastest that Harry had seen, with the hat barely spending any time on her head before announcing "Hufflepuff"

With a big smile, she pranced down the aisle between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. With a glance to Fay, Harry decided to raise his hand for a high five with the latest Hufflepuff, and to his surprise, Gabrielle turned to follow suit. Hermione nudged the boys beside her, and Bones ended up high fiving herself all the way down to her seat on the other side of Cornfoot.

"Welcome to Hufflepuff," the first year Hufflepuffs chorused as she sat down.

"Thanks," Susan said, turning to Cornfoot. "Sean, in Hufflepuff too. You know what this means."

"I get you into the locker room, after a game, with me," Sean replied.

"Wait, your father is Veritas Cornfoot? And you'd be the Crowning Cannon?"

"Love the team, hate the mascot uniform. It was cute when I was five, but I wish they'd see I've outgrown it."

"Kind of have to agree with you there," Ron said, before they turned to high five Terry Boot who had just been sorted into Ravenclaw. "Mum made one for me when I was six, and altered it until I was eight. Ginny's got it now, but I think she's decided to never wear it again, after the butter beer incident."

"That was your sister? I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't want to show her face at a Cannon's game again."

"Yeah, well ... she's not as much of a fan, so probably not."

Nott and Davis soon joined Slytherin, but not with the high fives that the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had given. Then Vincent Crabbe was sorted into Gryffindor.

Harry could tell that the boy didn't expect that, as he trudged around the outside of the hall, to go to a seat at the end of the Gryffindor table. Less than a quarter of the way down the table, a red headed prefect put out his hand for a high five, and then two more Gryffidor carrot tops put out their hands, and then all the Gryfindors behind the followed suit. By the time Crabbe found his seat at the end of the table, he was smiling widely as his obviously unexpected new house welcomed him.

Wayne Hopkins was the last name to be called by Professor McGonagall, and it did not take long at all for the boy to be sorted into Ravenclaw. As the boy went down the row between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, neither house was willing to be outdone by Gryffindor, getting high fives all the way down, and a veritable chorus of welcomes to Ravenclaw echoed as he passed each group.

As soon as he sat down, applause broke out among the upper years, and did not die down until some minutes have passed. By that time, Professor McGonagall had made her way to her seat next to the Headmaster. She tapped her wine glass and two clear tones rang throughout the hall.

"Before we open the feast, a few start of term announcements," the Headmaster said. "As you may know, recent events have required us to seek out a new Professor. After a great deal of negotiating with their current employer, I am happy to announce that our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, William Weasley, shall be arriving tomorrow afternoon, after wrapping up a few last tasks for Gringotts."

Harry looked to his right, and saw Ron putting his hands on his forehead. "All I need now is for Charlie to be announced as Flying Profesor."

"Doubtful, Charlie just got out of Hogwarts last year," Gabriel said. "I don't think he wants to risk McGonagall's wrath so soon after ruining Gryffindor's chances at the Quidditch Cup by leaving a half year early. Not that the opportunity wasn't too good of one to pass up. I wouldn't."

"You're not working with dragons, ever, Gab," Gabrielle replied.

"... And a few last words. And here they are Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

And with that, a feast appeared on the table, with all sorts of food, some of which Harry had eaten before, and some he'd never even seen before.

"I've said it once, I'll say it again, our Headmaster is a bit mad. A genius, and tops in the world, but mad." Gabriel said, shaking his head. "Try some of the broccoli, Weasley. Vegetables are good for you."

* * *

VBDF

* * *

Dudley had warned Lily that her siblings would challenge her on her first night in charge. Harry had figured that it would be spread over several nights, and bet that Brad would be first. Lily had hoped that she wouldn't have that at all, especially since her mum had informed the whole family that she didn't want to hear any problems today. Mum's pregnancy was not making her feel good at the moment, so she'd retired to the parent's room with a glass of ginger water and a good book.

It appeared, however, that some of her siblings had not learnt the lesson of keeping everything calm and following orders when mum wasn't feeling well. It hadn't been hard to get Primrose and Noel to take their bath. She'd called them right at seven fifteen, just like usual, and sat on the toilet seat while the two undressed and took their bath, just like she'd done a couple times when Harry was sick. There was no playing in the bathtub. Baths were for getting cleaned. A brief inspection had occurred to make sure they'd washed correctly, before she let them put on their underpants and go down for their snack, which Violet was handling.

Iris, at six, was trusted a bit more, and no longer shared the bath with her brother Brad. If she shared at all now, it would be with Violet. She was actually waiting for the bathroom to be free. There was a bit of dirt on Iris's cheek that hadn't been there when Lily had gone up with Primrose and Noel. There was also a streak of dirt down one side of her outfit. "They're done?" Iris stated. "Good. You might want to see to Badley. Don't let him give you a good night kiss."

Lily knew that the removal of the R in Bradley's name was not a good sign. "What did he do?"

"Dad has him cleaning up what he tracked in," Iris said. "He's blaming Dennis. Something about Gnasher, a leash, and a squirt gun filled with cranberry juice, I think. Whatever it is, Violet is not looking forward to cleaning his shirt."

"This, I got to see," Lily said. "Bathroom is yours for the next fifteen minutes ... maybe a bit longer if I end up having Bradley shower." Iris nodded, as Lily passed her.

The moment she got downstairs, she found Bradley barefoot, only wearing his boxers, which appeared to have been dyed red and were soaked to his body. His hair was covered with a white powder. By the door was his jeans, which appeared to be ripped on one leg and had mud on them. He had a mop that which he was using to clean up a trail of mud."Don't ask, I'm not going to say," Bradley said. "Just .. you know ... I don't know what, but Dennis is going to regret what he did."

"I see ... and are there any others that were involved, like perhaps Godwin and Crispin?" Lily asked. Bradley tried not to show any reaction, but he was her little brother. "Brad, would you be talking to Harry?" Bradley looked up briefly with an expression of surprise. "Okay, Dudley was right. They thought the lid was off with Piers, Dudley, and Harry gone. That dog is worse than our aunt's ever were, and if I'm not mistaken you got hit by the mudballs too. Violet!"

"Yes Lily?" Violet said, leaning out of the kitchen.

"Make sure Brad takes a shower at least, and is really clean for a change," Lily said. "I'm going to make sure Colin is ready for his little brother ... but first, I think I need to talk to Porta. Someone forgot about their Kipling."

"Kipling?" Bradley said, as Lily went to the phone and dialed Number Nine. "What is Kipling?"

"Porta?" Lily said, the moment she heard an answer. "Please remind Godwin about his Kipling, as we discussed last Wednesday. Oh, has he come in?"

She could hear Porta over the phone state, "You just got a call from the Dursley's, little Win." She knew that expression would happen when Dudley made similar calls. She'd been at the Creevey's when Dudley had called about Dennis before. Harry, Dudley, and Piers called it giving fair warning. It never was done older sibling to younger sibling, and Lily was a good girl, so she'd never gotten a call from Piers. She'd seen both sides though. Lily hadn't expected to have to do this so soon.

She heard Godwin glup as she said "Godwin, you and I are going to talk tomorrow on the way to school, but first, a single verse to haunt your dreams, because I'm not the Big Boys. My reign as part of the Triumvirate is going to be different. Why?

"When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,  
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.  
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.  
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

"If you though because Piers left you and your friends would be getting away with things, think again. We're prepared to prove Kipling's poem. Have a wonderful night."

Lily hung up the phone, having not let Godwin sign off "Now, Brad, I need to know exactly what Dennis the Menace and his pals did, and I need to know it now, before I go handle him via window. I can threaten Godwin without knowledge, but Dennis requires it."

Brad gulped. "He thought I was the one that snitched on him with Mister Stone. So he sicced Gnasher on me. I ran but ended up having to go through the Watt's front garden, which they've dug up but haven't put the new plants in. Then I ran into Crispin and Godwin who dumped a bucket of this awful juice, soaking my clothes. That let Gnasher catch up with me, and he ripped my jeans. Dennis then pulled out his sling shot and shot me with a ball that burst into white powder when it hit my forehead."

"Good. Now do you want a shower or bath tonight?" Lily asked, already knowing the answer. So she looked around the hall and determined that Brad had done a passable job cleaning up after himself.

"Shower," Bradley replied.

"Okay, it looks like you've done here, so shower, and when you're done, report to my room for inspection," Lily ordered.

"Do I have to?" Bradley whined.

"What is your current streak of passed inspections with Harry?" Lily asked.

"Two," Bradley said quietly, looking down at his feet.

"And how many did Harry say you had to pass in a row?" Lily continued, her hand going out to raise Bradley's gaze so she could look him right in the eyes.

"Fifteen," Bradley replied, before turning around and heading for the kitchen door to the garage.

Lily smiled as her little brother headed to the showers in the back of the garage. Then she headed up to the room she shared with Violet. As it was a rather warm night, but already cooling from the hot end of Summer day, the window was already open, letting a cool breeze in. She could see that Colin was already in his bedroom, carefully placing his latest pictures in the portfolio file.

Colin had the photo bug, having received a camera from his Uncle J.W. for his last birthday, and had the use of the dark room that Mister Gallegher had created for his son Todd back in the 60s. He had one of the three drawers under his bed in the room he shared with his brother Dennis filled with his portfolio. His window was also open, and it appeared that he was actually expecting contact. "Lily! Ready to shakedown Dennis the Menace?" Colin said.

"Yes," Lily said, as she slid Dudley's black bathrobe over her shoulders. "Is the tape ready for tonight?"

"Yes," Colin replied, "Shall I get him?"

"Most certainly," Lily said, picking up an envelope and the letter opener that she'd prepared. It didn't take long for Colin to bring the other occupant of his bedroom to the window. She nodded to Colin, who pounded a mallet twice on the wooden window frame, actually causing Dennis to flinch at the sudden sound and the closeness of the impact.

"Here ye, here ye, the Court of the Youth of Privet Drive is now in session, Judge Lily April Dursley presiding in succession. The case of Dennis the Menace . vs the Crown thirty-five now sits before the bench." Colin announced.

"Dennis the Menace, you stand before this court to be arraigned on counts of bullying, destruction of attire, and conspiracy," Lily said, casually slitting open the envelope, making sure that it would glint in the light of the setting sun. "How do you plea?"

"Not guilty!" Dennis replied. Lily knew that if Dudley were presiding their wouldn't be such a plea. Same with Piers or Harry.

"You've entered a plea of not guilty to this court," Lily replied. "This is your right, though it may show some lack of remorse, that may be accounted for later. This court, however is a court of fact, and you shall be allowed to present your facts and defend yourself. However, it is late, so before we adjourn I must remind you:

"When the Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,  
He will sometime wiggle sideways and avoid it if he can.  
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trial  
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

"The defendant is remanded into the custody of his older brother, and this court is adjourned until thirty minutes after the dismissal of school tomorrow, at which time we shall reconvene in normal session in the Stone Playhouse. Court adjourned."

Colin slammed the window shut, loudly, and his brother jumped back into his brother's arms. Lily watched as Colin managed to hold his next youngest sibling, saying something in his ears. There wasn't much difference between the nine-and-three-quarters-year-old and the eight-and-a-half year old. It looked like Dennis was surprised that his older brother was taking a hard line against him. Colin was sometimes a bit of a menace himself, but Colin was more of an annoyance as opposed to Dennis's more bullying nature. Lily would take Colin over Dennis any day.

There was a knock on Lily's door. "Enter," she said. She turned around as the door opened revealing Bradley, not dried completely, and with a head of hair that hadn't got wet.. "Brad, did you even duck you head under the water?"

* * *

VBDF

* * *

Fay Dunbar was quite stuffed by the time the Hufflepuffs reached their common room. She barely was able to keep her eyes open during the brief speech by Professor Sprout, and certainly wouldn't be able to quote a single word the next day. She had been able to get to know Susan Bones enough that they'd agreed to use each other's first names, like had been done with all those she'd shared a compartment with. When the Professor told the fifth year prefects to lead the first year boys and girls to their respective dorms, she had a very big yawn before they even entered the girls corridor. She wanted nothing more but to find her new bed and get to sleep.

"First Year girls are at the very end of the corridor this year," Gabrielle said. "I think you're the first year I can recall where Hufflepuff had only two girls in a year. Here we are. Wait, that can't be right."

That perked Fay right up, and it didn't take long at all for her to read the contents of the frame by the door. "First Years: Dunbar, Bones, Cornfoot, Weasley, Finch-Fletchley, Potter, Longbottom, Malone, MacMillan, Malfoy."

The door opened, and the female prefect strode through it. Fay and Susan stepped through the door right behind her. "Glad you could get here, sis," Gabriel Truman said from a seat next to the room's pot belled stove. "I've already contacted Professor Sprout and she's gone for Professor Flitwick. In the meantime, I've got the boys getting ready for bed."

"This won't work," Gabrielle said.

The room had five two-person alcoves down the side to Fay's left side, and down the other side was a sink alcove flanked by two toilet rooms then flanked by shower rooms. The closest alcove to the girl's entry way had a set of lattice work gates on them. In between each alcove were either some sort of seating or a desk. There were scatterings of rugs throughout the room, artfully arranged such that they appeared that they were causally tossed into the best possible spot.

"They're first years, put the girls behind the gates, some charms on one of the showers, and I think it will," Gabriel said, as Malfoy exited one of the shower rooms in a robe with still wet hair "We share a bathroom at home, after all." Malfoy crossed the room and entered the furthest alcove.

"You're my brother, and if we didn't have a house elf, I'd be demanding that we didn't," Gabrielle said. "Hello Professors."

"Gabbies," Professor Sprout said. "Miss Bones, Miss Dunbar, I sorry for the trouble. But it appears that the low number of girls in your year has caused a bit of dorm configuration issue. Fil, what do you think?"

"I think I see the issue," Flitwick replied, his wand tracing lines across the room. "There are hidden dividers between two and three, and three and four, but not one and two or four and five. The divider trigger is adjacent alcoves with different sex assignments. It seems that no consideration was made for two or less of any given sex."

He then cast something at the nearest alcove. A blue glow briefly surrounded the door. Flitwick cocked his head to the left, and cast again, this time getting a deep hunter green glow around the door. "Miss Dunbar, if you would touch that door and say the word 'secretum.'"

Fay stepped over to the first alcove and as she touched the open door she got her first glance at the alcoves. To each side of a window there were beds with a canopy dropping down from a center ring to drape against the wall and over the head an foot of the bed. The bedding was different colors depending on which side you were on. She decided she liked the one with blue and purple bedding with the lilac canopy best. She touched the door. "Secretum." The door changed from an open grid to a solid plank door in the arched opening.

"Now try 'patere,'" Flitwick said, as MacMillan exited from the same shower that Malfoy had, and headed to the same alcove, but only in a pair of boxers. The boy looked like he was about to fall asleep.

"Patere," Fay said. The door returned to the open grid door instead.

"I take back my statement about there not being a consideration for two or less of any given sex. It appears at least the for the females, there is," Flitwick stated. "The bathing areas and toilets have the usual charms on them, so as long as the door is closed, privacy and protection is assured, Pomona."

"Thank you, Fil," Professor Spout replied, as Ron exited the far shower still drying his hair with a yellow towel. Like MacMillan, he was only wearing a pair of boxers. "Boys! Out here please."

Ron came to a stop, as the others tumbled out of the other alcoves. Out of the nearest alcove, Cornfoot came out, his left arm still completing putting on the Chudley Cannon orange robe over his boxers. The next alcove discharged Finch-Fletchley in a black with light blue striped pyjama set that seemed to project expensive, as well as Harry wearing a navy robe tied at the waist with a white lion on the left breast. The next to last alcove had Neville, who wore a blue shirt with "Puddlemere United" written on it with a logo of a chaser about to throw the quaffle, just pulling up a matching pair of pyjama bottoms. Behind him was Malone who was still in his school uniform robes and had a cello's bow in his hand. Lastly an already half asleep Malfoy, closing his robe and MacMillan emerged from the last alcove.

Fay thought the boys didn't appear to be that bad, if you excluded Malfoy, and she could already tell that Ron wasn't going to be the neatest of dormmates. The towel that he'd been drying his hair with had dropped to the floor. To be perfectly honest, her judgement of Malfoy was due to her encounters with the stuck up scion at various social events, not impressions at school. It was really to early to judge anyone else as a dormmate.

"Boys, Girls," Professor Spout began. "It appears that we're going to have to live with the current arrangement of first year dorms in Hufflepuff. There is going to be some additional rules, however, and I reserve the right to change them if they don't work. First, the doors to the girls hall, and the girls alcove shall not be passed through by boys. I'm not entirely sure what protections have been placed, given that the hall slide isn't available on this end, and I don't want to find out.

"Second, when using the showers, they may only be shared by the same sex, and the doors shall be closed when they are in use. The doors shall also be closed for the toilets as well. Third, outside of your alcove and the showers, boys shall at least wear boxers. Finally, I shall expect respect among the sexes, no intimate contact. You're first years, so I'm not expecting it, but it bears repeating, do not abuse the trust I'm giving you by breaking these rules.

"I would try to move both girls out of this dorm, but the castle only provides exactly the right number of beds and rooms as needed. I expect you all to let me know if there are any issues what so ever, and I will attempt fix them. The prefects, especially the Gabbies, will be available to help, as well. Mister Truman, why are you grinning like that?"

"Just remembering last year's issue, third year boys dorms," Gabriel said.

"Right, amend that last rule," Professor Sprout said. "No intimate contact, even if you're the same sex. This is a dorm, not a brothel, and none of you are rooming with your betrothed either."

Fay had to wonder what happened last year with the third year boys. There had to be a story in that. But before she could gather the courage to ask, her Head of House said,"That will be all ladies and gentlemen. Lights out is soon, and I expect you all to have a good night's sleep, as you'll need to be in the Great Hall at seven tomorrow."

Ron groaned at the time, but Fay didn't have time to figure out why, as she headed to the girl's alcove. Based on where her trunk was, it looked like she was getting the one with blue and purple bedding with the lilac canopy. She quickly pulled out a fresh pair of panties and the pajamas she slept in, which happened to also be a lilac top with three buttons and a purple bottom. She kicked off her shoes and pulled off her socks, before heading across the main room to the unoccupied showers, just a few steps ahead of Susan.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Malone crossing as well to the boys shower, barefoot but otherwise still in his school robes. Susan closed the doors behind them, and without a word, spoken, but both with big yawns they undressed for their shower. It was a very comfortable shower, with exactly the warmth that she expected of her showers, not too cold or too hot. After several minutes cleaning with the provided yellow washcloth and some very nice honey scented soap, she rinsed off, toweled off, and dressed in her pajamas.

The main room was darkened by the time she and Susan finished their showers, but there was just enough light for them to get to their alcove. She closed the door, still in it's open grid form, and then slid under the warm covers for a good night's sleep.

* * *

VBDF

* * *

Severus Snape was actually a morning person. He was sure that very few people who knew him as a teen would believe it. During his teenage years he hadn't been one, but he'd reverted to one as soon as he had become a professor. It was why he generally did patrols Friday Night, it was the only way he'd be able to sleep in on Saturday, something he'd promised himself to always do once he was free of his father.

That didn't mean that he didn't enjoy a good cup of morning coffee with his point twenty fifth of a teaspoon of milk, stirred three and a quarter times. The aroma was perfect, and the extra stimulate even potent in the air. He'd made the cup himself, arriving at the Slytherin Common Room before the first student had woken up. He took a seat by the door and awaited the arrival of each student. It was a different method for him, but he wanted to delay his first encounter with Harry Potter.

He'd received a letter from Petunia shortly after the letters had gone out to the new first years, letting him know that Lily's child was coming for his first year. She'd even included a picture of him with Petunia and her oldest daughter, who was a spitting image of Lily. He'd been greatly surprised at that. Even more so when he'd discovered that she was the namesake of her aunt.

It was that picture that had caused him to take a good look at his past. Seeing what was in effect an image of a younger James and Lily with Petunia put him in a much more reflective mood. Oh, he still didn't like James Potter, but he could admit that he'd given as good as he'd got. With Harry Potter having been sorted in Hufflepuff, which was never a threat to his house, he wasn't seeing a reincarnation of James. James would have never been sorted into Hufflepuff. He was too much of a pureblood charging knight in shining armor, a shallow person. Hufflepuffs, he knew, had more depth to them.

Severus knew he'd probably have a few knee jerk reactions when he encountered the latest Potter, but it wouldn't be the same as it would have been if he'd been one of Minerva's lions. Pomona kept a much more even kneel with her badgers, though you were to put one of them past their limits, well only a fool angered a badger. Unfortunately, he had way too many fools in his house lately.

He'd been surprised when Draco had been sorted into Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin. It would not be easy on his godson not to be in Slytherin, but he would have to let Draco know that his door was still open. He'd probably need it once Lucius discovered his son's sorting. Malfoys had been sorted into Slytherin since the first sorting with the Sorting Hat. As a school governor, Lucius was probably going to make it a personal visit, and he was glad that he wasn't an involved head of house with that one.

As he got through the first tenth of students, Severus reflected that he wasn't exactly being bold at the moment. He'd heard what happened to the Dark Lord in the Leaky Cauldron, and seen Lucius's burnt arm, still in the process of healing a month later, when they'd encountered Harry Potter and the Dursley's. He didn't want to be the latest Death Eater to end up in with a burning arm.

A couple of fourth-years, Faustus McGee and his ever present best friend Fortuna Falstaff (don't ever say they were any more or less) entered, and rather than just stopping long enough to get their schedules, McGee spoke up. "Professor, I just heard that they found Augustus Rookwood in a muggle hospital. It seems he got struck by lightning on a rather clear summer day."

"I see, and what do they say that caused the suppose to be on work release Unspeakable to be smote from above?" Severus asked.

"If my sources are correct, he was last seen attempting to follow a certain family," Falstaff said. "You know the one, with the recent surprise sorting into Hufflepuff."

Severus considered the unsolicited information a moment, and decided that it might be advisable to spread a bit more information around. "To those that know Mister Potter, it is no surprise. I grew up with the aunt who raised him, a muggle true, but quite a hard worker believed in family unity. A recent letter that I received has acquainted me to the current circumstances of the family. Petunia has described her nephew as part of the glue that holds her family of eight children counting Mister Potter together. That suggested to me that as long as he did not fall into the regrettable Potter Family tradition of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff was most likely.

"However, a word to the wise, Potter in Hufflepuff is not an easy mark. He will not be easily shaped onto any path he does not consider, and his family will remain paramount in his thinking."

"And at Hogwarts, your house is your family," McGee stated. "We'll try keep the idiots in our year out of the way."

"You do that, and both of you will be prefects next year," Severus said. It was an easy statement. The current fourth year in his house was filled with more than its fair share of dunderheads. The only plus he'd found thus far was that their potions disasters usually ended up in sticky messes for detention uses than explosions.

It did not take long for the rest of his Slytherins to file through on the way to breakfast and the Great Hall. No Slytherin was dunderheaded enough to miss breakfast, and if there were someone that did miss it, there would be a good reason, like Miss Belladona's narcolepsy. Fortunately she'd completed her NEWTs last year, so he wouldn't be going into the female dorms to find out if she'd fallen asleep again.

Priding himself for finding a way to avoid the encounter with Potter for a while longer, Severus looked down at his own schedule. First class, First Years Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. He went to take another sip of his coffee. He'd already finished it.

There was only one conclusion, the world hated Severus Snape, and he was going to burn this morning.

* * *

 _The verses used in this chapter are from Kipling's "The Female of the Species." It is advisable to read and consider the whole poem._


End file.
